In the context of this specification, a “tethered ball” is a ball for use in tethered bat and ball games, having a tether cord attached thereto which is in turn attached to an anchor point at a location remote from the ball and around which the ball is struck.
Any reference hereinafter after to a hollow ball must be interpreted as a reference to a hollow ball having a wall of resiliently deformable rubber, or like, material forming the ball, the wall having a hole formed therein for enabling anchoring of a flight control device such as a tether cord or a tail, to the ball. The hole, where convenient, shall merely be referred to hereinafter as the hole in the ball.
It is known in relation to tethered bat and ball games, that the ball has a tether cord anchored thereto. In order to provide for anchoring of the tether cord to a hollow ball, an anchor is provided by a relatively large, substantially rigid anchor formation that is displaced through a hole provided therefor in the wall forming the ball, into the interior of the ball, the anchor formation then having the tether cord engaged therewith for effective anchoring of the tether cord with respect to the ball. It will be understood that because the wall forming the ball generally is of a resiliently deformable rubber material, the anchor formation must be significantly larger than the hole provided therefor in the wall, for ensuring that the anchor formation remains secure within the ball and is not pulled through the hole in the ball when playing a tethered ball game with the ball.
The design of anchor fittings for fitting a tether cord to a hollow ball for use in tethered bat and ball games or a tail for use in untethered bat and ball games, has always presented a technical challenge in view of the stresses imposed on an anchor fitting when the ball is struck. This problem is particularly evident in the design of anchor fittings for fitting a tether cord to a hollow ball for use in tethered bat and ball games such as tether tennis games, in which the ball is subjected to particularly high stresses when struck by a bat against the holding force exerted by the tether cord on the ball. In the case of tether tennis games it was only when an effective anchor fitting was developed which could absorb the bat impact forces without causing the tethered tennis ball to rapidly split open after only a few blows, was it possible to mass market games of this type which have since proved to be popular in a number of markets for many years. One such anchor fitting which has been used with a degree of success for anchoring a tether cord to a hollow ball is the anchor fitting disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,252,607 in the name of European Sports Merchandising B.V. The anchor fitting disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,252,607 includes a pair of rigid shoulder-defining bodies and an elongate anchor body which holds the shoulder-defining bodies in place within the ball and extends through the ball hole in the assembled condition, thereby protecting the ball hole wall from being damaged by the tether cord during play. The provision of relatively small separate components which can be inserted separately into the ball through the ball hole made it considerably easier to insert the components into the ball and also considerably reduced the risk of accidentally damaging the wall of the ball defining the hole. Although the anchor fitting disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,252,607 has been used with a certain degree of success, a problem has arisen with the use of anchor fittings of this type in that a tendency of the anchor fitting to be pulled from the ball through the hole defined therein, when the ball is subjected to a particularly high impact blow, has been observed. This problem is considerably exacerbated in the case of relatively thin walled hollow rubber balls used in tether tennis games. Such lighter thin-walled balls are desirable for a number of reasons for use in tethered ball games as they enable the use of lighter bats and also offer an improved impact feel when struck by a bat. Attempts by the applicant to use any of the known anchor fittings, including the anchor fitting disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,252,607, did not work with balls having a wall thickness of less than 3.5 mm (which is the approximate wall thickness of a standard tennis ball) as the balls soon split in the area surrounding the hole when struck by a heavy blow with a bat.
Further in the context of this specification, a “streamer ball” is a ball for use in tennis or badminton type ball games, of a type having a tail comprising a number of elongate flexible streamers which are attached to the ball for stabilizing the flight orientation of the ball. Streamer balls of this type are known.
A streamer ball of this type is disclosed in International Patent Application PCT/IB02/04673 (Gormley). The streamer ball comprises a ball and a tail having an elongate flexible spacer stem and a number of streamers that are spaced from the ball by the spacer stem. The use of a tail connected to a ball has a number of benefits when playing a tennis-type ball game. Firstly, the provision of a tail, reduces any tendency of the ball to spin or swerve during flight thereby causing the ball to follow a regular flight path. Secondly, the use of a tail which trails behind the ball in flight creates drag which slows the ball down so that when the ball is struck with a bat, the distance that the ball can travel is effectively reduced, thereby permitting a tennis-type ball game to be played in a relatively small area while the ball can still be struck at “full strength”. Thirdly, the tail significantly reduces roll of the ball on a ground surface, thereby facilitating easy ball recovery.
A further problem which has become apparent with regard to the use of anchor fittings having at least one rigid shoulder-defining body, is that distal ends of the shoulder-defining body exert a relatively high point load on the interior side of the wall forming the ball, when the ball is struck. The point loading at the distal ends of the shoulder-defining body is even greater if the ball is struck, in a region of the ball wherein the wall forming the ball abuts a distal end of the shoulder-defining body resulting not only in damage to the wall forming the ball at the region of impact with the distal end of the shoulder-defining body, but also to an unpleasant jarring impact feel.
It is thus an object of the present invention to ameliorate the abovementioned problems associated with existing known anchor fittings.